This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
The lights dim and spies climb on the runway to gather in front of a dark screen. A hooded figure flickers to life on a video screen and, with a disguised voice, tells the agents to find out the secret to Harker’s success. The countdown begins …
The homage to “Mission: Impossible” set the tone for this year’s fashion show, Mission: Possible – Dare to Try, Harker’s 10th annual fundraising spectacular. The visionaries behind the show were parent John Keller and Laura Lang-Ree, K-12 performing arts chair, who together created a plotline that ran throughout the show: could undercover agents find the secret to why Harker students had so much fun, did so well and enjoyed school so much? A record number of dedicated volunteers supported the mission from start to finish.
Mission: Possible – Dare to Try
Before the undercover secret agent could give the spies their assignment, Showstoppers and High Voltage exploded onto the runway, dancing to the Mission Impossible theme, which the audience no doubt recognized either from the popular Tom Cruise movies or the 1960s-’70s TV series.
Student, parent and staff models took to the runway in clothes from several generous fashion partners, including Ken Chen, Azadeh, Oakley, Old Navy and Catimini; and occasionally a trench-coated secret agent would pop up onto the runway to try to infiltrate a segment, interacting with the models by grabbing their props for “observation” or dancing with them. Each segment had a title that tied into the show’s Dare to Try theme, including Dare to Dream, Dare to be Different, Dare to Succeed and Dare to be Yourself. Harker’s fine performing arts ensembles also headlined segments, as Dance Fusion performed to a party medley for Dare to Have Fun, Downbeat shook the house with “Wings” for the Dare to Fly segment and Varsity Dance Troupe rocked the Dare to Dance segment, appropriately.
The show had a high-tech gloss, with video montages playing on three large screens, fog,
exciting lighting effects and a status bar appearing occasionally to let the audience know the mission was 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent accomplished.
The finale was particularly memorable, as Lang-Ree realized a 10-year vision with live instrumentalists accompanying models for the first time; a chamber ensemble and the Grade 5 Choir joined Downbeat to perform while senior models showed off formal evening wear.
Finally the spies cried defeat, telling their boss that they didn’t want to infiltrate Harker – they wanted to go there! And, lo and behold, the agent pulled off his hood and revealed himself as Chris Nikoloff, head of school. The real Nikoloff took the runway moments later to thank the guests for coming and offer a well-deserved round of applause to the countless volunteers and staff who put this spectacular show together.
Not Just About the Fashion
This year’s luncheon show featured a live auction for the first time. Damon Casatico, Harker’s favorite dinnertime auctioneer, was back after a year away and worked the crowd into a bidding mood as guests vied for the chance to record their own CD in a professional studio, enjoy a day at Discovery Bay or swap places with their teachers for a day.
Spy movies always seem to include glamorous locales, and the fashion show was no exception, with a full-scale casino in the lobby, where guests flooded the tables to try their luck, and a photo center where attendees could have their pictures taken in front of some exotic world sites, including the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower.
The dinner auction had some unbelievable packages, including a meet-and-greet with PayPal and Tesla founder Elon Musk at his SpaceX facility, an internship at high-tech firm Prysm, a prime 49ers package and the chance to become an avatar in the next version of Guitar Hero. The ever-popular puppy was back, too, this year in the form of Kona, an adorable chocolate Labrador who found a new home with the Nikoloff family.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
What began as a holiday seasonal community project has evolved into a larger, new schoolwide outreach program called HarKare (Harker Cares).
HarKare launched with its first project, making ornaments to accompany classroom Christmas trees donated from the lower, middle and upper school campuses to underprivileged families.
To that end, about 40 Harker parents and children of varying ages took time out on a Sunday in December to gather for the ornament-making event.
“HarKare will create opportunities for kids and whole families to participate in all sorts of community projects going on all year, not just during the holiday season,” enthused Teré Aceves, lower school volunteer program director at Harker.
In February there were two HarKare initiatives running nearly simultaneously: a book exchange on Feb. 8 and a volunteer effort with the organization Sea Scavenger the following day.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
January 29 will go down in Harker history as the day school administrators were handed an official set of keys to the long coveted new campus property on Union Avenue in San Jose.
Sharing the historic accomplishment with the Harker community, Chris Nikoloff, head of school, recalled a previous groundbreaking moment when the Palo Alto Military Academy and Miss Harker’s School for Girls merged together and moved to San Jose in 1972.
Today, school officials have innovative, strategic plans to turn the Union campus into the future permanent home of the lower school. The site will also be used to launch a preschool starting this September.
Harker first made breaking news when it became top bidder on the available third campus property located at 4525 Union Ave. Following a due diligence period on the Union campus (where Harker reviewed areas such as permit, traffic, environmental and title use), the administration suc- cessfully closed on the Union property in January.
Ever since opening the upper school in 1998, Harker has planned to own three campuses. Currently Harker owns the upper school Saratoga and lower school Bucknall campuses, but holds a lease on the middle school Blackford campus until 2025. However, the Blackford lease has long been viewed as a temporary stopgap measure.
The school’s long-term plan is to locate the middle school on the Bucknall campus and move the lower school to the Union campus. Other plans in the works include: building a gym and theater complex on the Saratoga campus to replace the gym and theater on the Blackford campus; creating a permanent solution for field use; making improvements on the Union campus in preparation for its K-5 use; and relocating some operations at Blackford.
While the preschool would initially operate on the Union property, it would later be transitioned to leased or purchased land when the time comes to move the K-5 programs to Union.
The preschool will serve ages three through (young) five-year-olds with the capacity to serve up to 120 students. Previously, Harker ran a very successful junior kindergarten, but closed that program (as well as the school’s boarding program) to make space for the upper school.
Kelly Espinosa, Harker’s director of summer and preschool programs, said that due to state regulations, the admission process cannot begin until licensing is complete, likely in early July. Currently, Harker is asking interested families to complete an inquiry form to be notified of the preschool’s progress.
“We are all so excited about the new preschool,” said Espinosa. “It is a beautiful facility, and combined with our caring and qualified staff and our rich and balanced learning approach, it promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience for young children!”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Harker progresses in its mission to help students become global citizens, the school’s foreign language department has been instrumental in not only equipping students with the skills to communicate, but also instilling familiarity, understanding and admiration of many different cultures.
From on-campus cultural events, to visits by authors and musicians, to trips overseas, the foreign language program strives to create an immersive experience to make students enthusiastic about languages and the cultures of the people who speak them.
“There’s just so much energy connected to the immersive experience that really motivates the kids,” said Abel Olivas, upper school Spanish teacher and foreign language department chair. “It’s almost like they don’t even really realize that they’re learning.”
One indicator of how valued foreign language education is at Harker is its early introduction into the curriculum. In grade 1, students attend one period of Spanish each week. Students in grades 4 and 5 attend two periods a week. Upon reaching grade 6, they may take Spanish, French, Japanese, Latin or Mandarin for four periods each week.
“It’s wonderful to introduce foreign language study as early as possible,” said Carol Parris, K-8 foreign languages department chair. “In terms of oral fluency, young students are generally good mimics and less inhibited about speaking than students who start the study of language in later years.”
Diana Moss, an upper school Spanish teacher, says beginning early also helps students pick up patterns in different languages, enabling them to transition from one foreign language to another much more easily. “I do think that there is something to the effect that once you’re working with language, it’s easier and easier,” she said. “You understand how to put languages together.”
This foundation often results in students taking level 3 language classes in their first year of high school. “Very few high schools encourage freshmen to enter level 3 language classes,” Parris added.
This level of proficiency, however, isn’t just the result of starting young. At every level, teachers go to great lengths to keep their students engaged and excited about learning languages. “Language students enjoy learning about the countries and cultures where the languages are spoken,” Parris said. “In addition to language, they learn about geography, art, music and customs, participate in holiday celebrations, have food tastings, etc. A highlight of 2M classes [for students who have taken the three-year middle school language sequence] is going to a restaurant of the appropriate nationality.”
Such activities take students beyond the often rote process of learning a foreign language to help them develop a more emotional connection to the languages they are learning. “Let’s face it,” Moss said. “Grammar and learning vocabulary are not the most exciting things in the world. The thing that makes a foreign language fun is the culture.”
Olivas, for example, teaches students in his classes how to dance salsa. “It’s one of the things that they seem to really enjoy, even the kids who are not dancers,” he said. They also delve into the lives of famous salsa artists, such as Cuban-American legend Celia Cruz.
Other teachers treat their students to local cultural events, such as the Japanese tea ceremony in San Francisco which was attended by the students of middle school Japanese teacher Kumi Matsui. Similarly, upper school Mandarin teacher Shaun Jahshan has taken her students to local Chinese-American marketplaces, where they use their knowledge of Chinese to order food and milk tea.
Angela Ma, grade 11, who has studied French at Harker since grade 6, said the cultural elements in her classes have enhanced her enjoyment and understanding of the language. “All of my French textbooks dedicate many pages to cultural and social comparisons, which my French teachers then expand on in class,” she said. “These extra mini-lessons on French tradition not only make everyday French class more relevant, but also remind the students that French is a language that encompasses much more than grammar and vocabulary.”
Teachers also liven up the classroom by inventing games to make the learning process more fun for their students. One of Olivas’ most popular classroom activities is the fly swatter game in which Olivas says a word or phrase in English or Spanish and students use a fly swatter to slap a synonymous Spanish word or phrase written on the board.
“Because they’re having a blast with it, the energy level goes up, and this learning process doesn’t feel like grunt work. It’s actually enjoyable,” Olivas said.
“We spend a lot of time having students practice in pairs, do group works and play games for reviewing materials, and there is always lively interaction going on in class, which makes foreign language classes unique from the rest of academic classes,” said Masako Onakado, who teaches upper school Japanese.
“The nice thing about foreign language is that it’s really whatever you want to talk about,” Moss said, remembering a time when Olivas walked into her classroom to ask her students what they thought of his sweater, sparking a long and lively discussion about his wardrobe, entirely in Spanish.
To create a more immersive environment, teachers often enforce a “No English” rule while class is in session. Olivas said this helps students mentally associate people and places with a language, thereby making use of the language feel more natural. “If you can get them to associate people and places with that language then it becomes more automatic; it’s like a switch comes on,” he said. Not surprisingly, foreign language teachers at Harker are full of stories about encountering their students outside the classroom, who then speak to them in their second languages almost automatically.
In addition to its unique approach to teaching languages, Harker’s foreign language program also offers an unusually wide array of languages for students to learn. “It might be difficult for some people, but the variety is amazing,” said Erik Andersen, grade 12, who started learning Latin in grade 10 and now studies Japanese. “The availability of Latin, Romance and Asian languages has been a rewarding experience for me, allowing me to learn about many different aspects of language and culture.”
Moss said support from Harker families, many of them multilingual, is a big reason for the depth of foreign language options. “The families here really value second-language education,” she said. “They have seen firsthand how important it is in this world economy to have languages under your belt.”
Students frequently find that their study of languages has applications beyond the classroom. “I chose French, in particular, because I do ballet and all of the dance steps are named in French,” said Ma. “Learning French has allowed me to understand ballet in a much more meaningful way by exposing me to the history and origins of the art.” She has also had the chance to use her French skills overseas during trips to France and Switzerland. “Two years ago, I traveled to Switzerland with the Harker Exchange Program. While I was there, I spoke almost entirely French the whole time,” she said. “Speaking French helped me become closer with my host family and appreciate the way of life in Switzerland.”
Andersen has found that his studies in Latin have enabled him to pick up on the meanings of English words that were previously unknown to him. “It might also help me if I decide I want to try to learn a Romance language later on,” he said.
Another important component of Harker’s foreign language education is trips to parts of the world where the languages are spoken natively. Students visit Japan, China and other countries every year to immerse themselves in their cultures and converse with native speakers. In 2011, middle school Spanish students embarked for the first time on a language immersion trip to Costa Rica, where they visited various important landmarks, participated in cultural celebrations and visited with the local population, using their Spanish language skills to communicate. This summer, middle school students will again participate in this trip, which is scheduled to take place every other summer.
Once overseas, Moss said, students often find themselves less apprehensive about using their second languages. “There’s really nothing like the actual experience of being in a foreign country and using a foreign language,” she said. “Kids tend to be kind of timid in the class. They don’t think they speak very well, but when they get out in the real world, they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can communicate,’ and it’s exciting for them.”
For many students, this passion for languages continues after graduation. “In the past few years, we have had growing number of students continuing to study Japanese in college,” Onakado said. “In this past year alone, we had four alumni going to Japan on study abroad programs.” Several more students, she said, are planning to study in Japan to learn more about the country’s culture and improve their proficiency with the language, even though most of them are not Japanese language majors.
Katherin Hudkins ’06, daughter of lower school art teacher Susan Bass and Director of Instructional Technology Dan Hudkins, spent a year in Ecuador as a birth doula and worked as a midwife’s apprentice in Guatemala. She Skyped from Ecuador with a Spanish class in 2009, and visited Harker in 2010 to speak to the students about her experiences.
“By the time they’re done with our program, I think that they really feel that … this is one of their languages,” Olivas said. “We haven’t heard back from them for a couple of years, and then all of a sudden you hear either that they’re minoring in the language or that they just spent a year in South America or they just did this great community service work.”
The importance of foreign language studies at Harker has resulted in many awards and honors for its students. Japanese language students have taken top honors at the Japan Bowl in Washington, D.C., several times and once even earned the opportunity to visit Japan and meet with the Imperial Princess. Harker also inducts dozens of students into the National Honor Societies of its foreign language programs. Students on many occasions have also taken top spots in linguistics competitions. Andersen, for example, helped his team win first place at last year’s International Linguistics Olympiad in Slovenia.
Ultimately, Moss views foreign language education as another way of helping students become citizens of the world and not just of the country in which they grew up. “Our students understand that they are global citizens, and it’s not about just living and understanding [American] culture,” Moss said.
Olivas also stressed that learning a new language, though useful, is more than just learning about how people talk: “It’s connected to how people live and how they express themselves, the ways in which they’re unique, the ways in which their societies are rich.”
The Blackford Theater came alive on March 15 for the annual Evening of Jazz, a concert featuring student musicians from all three campuses playing selections both modern and classic. The Upper School Jazz Band, directed by Chris Florio, got things under way with the famous Latin-flavored Dizzy Gillespie tune “Manteca,” and contined with the theme song to the most recent James Bond film, “Skyfall,” sung by Nina Sabharwal, grade 12.
Louis Hoffman and the Lower School Jazz Ensemble took the stage next, kicking off their set with a piece by student Anika Fuloria, grade 4, titled “Jazz in the Park,” followed by Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” and the theme to the late 1950s-early ’60s television show “Peter Gunn” by Henry Mancini.
Harker Winds, the grade 6 middle school ensemble directed by Dave Hart, then performed their own arrangement of the 1930s American popular song “You Are My Sunshine” and “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock. Hart proceeded to lead the Middle School Jazz Band in a set of four tunes, including “Four” by Miles Davis and “St. Thomas” by Sonny Rollins. The middle school musicians were soon after joined by the lower school jazz ensemble to perform Miles Davis’ “Blues by Five.”
Count Basie’s lively “Jive at Five” was the first of five songs performed by the Upper School Lab Band, directed by Hart, followed by no fewer than three Horace Silver songs and finishing with “Malaguena” by Ernesto Lecuona. Florio and the Upper School Jazz Band returned to perform a five-song set, including the Broadway favorite “My Funny Valentine,” the Irving Berlin classic “Blue Skies” and concluding with “Frequent Flyer” by Rich Woolworth.
The show ended with the jazz bands from the upper and middle schools performing the familiar favorite “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
March has seen a number of notable achievements from Harker students at a wide variety of events!
Christopher Hildum, grade 10, was recently awarded a full scholarship to the Pacific Northwest Ballet School’s summer program. The PNB is one of the country’s top ballet schools, and the summer program is available to students only through invitation.
At the 2013 PhotoCentral Spring Show on March 16, Liza Turchinsky, grade 7, was the only school-aged participant to have her work displayed. Two of her works won People’s Choice Awards at the event, one of which was purchased by a collector. Of the 300 images featured at the show, only 10 are given the People’s Choice Award.
Chess enthusiast Shaunak Maruvada, grade 6, performed well at the U.S. National Junior Congress Chess Championship, held the weekend of March 23, tying for fifth place in the Under 20 category and finishing with an overall score of 3 out of 5.
Eric Pei, grade 8, finished 15th out of 67 sabreurs in Division III (adults) sabre of the the North American Cup held in Reno March 15-18. Pei, fresh to the age 14-and-over category this year, is ranked 33rd nationally out of 114 in the Y14 bracket; he finished last season ranked 8th in the U.S in the Y12 bracket.
Harker families who came out on a sunny Saturday afternoon in early March for a special “Sneak Peek” event were treated to an early glimpse of the school’s recently acquired third campus and the director for the proposed preschool opening there, Andrea Hart.
“We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day and the campus looked even better with the addition of young children playing and laughing. It was wonderful to meet so many families and talk about our plans for the preschool and beyond,” said Kelly Espinosa, director of summer and preschool programs, “and having Andrea here was the icing on the cake.”
Upper school students served as tour guides, providing attendees with information about the campus. Many of the student guides had been at Harker since they were very young and shared how much their experiences at the school meant to them. Following the tour light refreshments were served as the engaging discussions continued.
Adding to the excitement of the day was a visit from Hart, who was hired just before the event and thrilled to be able to meet Harker parents.
“As you can imagine, hiring the director of our new program has been a very important first step in our process,” said Espinosa. “We had very specific requirements for this new position and we are so excited to have found Andrea Hart.”
Andrea Hart Joins Harker
Hart is a Bay Area native most recently at the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership at Columbia University. Previously she spent 11 years at the Bing Nursery School, the play-based laboratory preschool at Stanford University, and she started her career years before that in local Montessori preschools.
At Stanford, Hart taught two- to five-year-olds, mentored undergraduate student teachers and led parent education efforts at the Bing Institute. She also stayed connected to a wider community of educators through volunteering on a local board, the Peninsula Association for the Education of Young Children, and has run educational conferences for local early childhood professionals.
Hart’s first preschooler students are now seniors in college! Since that time, she has developed the philosophy that a child learns best through play, varied hands-on experiences, and interacting with educated and thoughtful teachers. It is from this foundation, she believes, that young children are best prepared to thrive in later school experiences. Hart is excited to return to the Bay Area and help Harker with the creation of an exceptional preschool that nurtures young children and leads to personal and academic success in later years.
One of Hart’s first tasks will be to begin the search for our educated and thoughtful preschool teachers. She is well connected in the preschool world and has already found some wonderful candidates. Harker as a whole is thrilled to have her leading this project and looks forward to the benefits the preschool will gain from her experience, knowledge and dedication to the development of young children and families for many years to come!
Look for future updates about the new Union campus and Harker preschool in future Harker News Online stories.
Two Harker students were recently named national award winners in this year’s Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Kevin Ke, grade 9, was awarded a silver medal for his digital drawing, “iCreature,” and Isha Patnaik, grade 12, received a silver medal in the photography category for “Sista, Sista.”
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Regional winners of this year’s Scholastic Art and Writing Awards were announced in early February, and a total of 27 Harker students have won regional Gold Key and Silver Key awards for their literary and artistic creations. At the middle school, Carissa Chen, grade 8, won in the drawing category for her work, titled “Forgotten,” and grade 8 student Meilan Steimle’s “Maternal Litigation” won in the personal essay/memoir category.
Upper school winners were Stephanie Chen, grade 11, for her short story “Sundial”; the digital art piece “iCreature” by freshman Kevin Ke (who also won a Gold Key for a painting titled “Mechanical Giant”); Cindy Liu, grade 10, who earned two photography honors for “Lines and Colors” and “Flower Impression”; Simon Orr, grade 12, whose “Udu No. 2” and “Copper Pot Flute” won in the ceramics and glass category; a photography piece titled “Sista, Sista” by senior Isha Patnaik; Svetlana Petrova, grade 12, who won in the painting category for “Still Life With Pumpkins” and in mixed media for “Star Spangled”; senior Eric Swenson for the photography pieces “Hamlet” and “Claudius; Lynda Tang, also a senior, in the drawing category for “Self Portrait”; Emily Wang, grade 12, in the personal essay/memoir category for “Missed Connections and the Secret of Mattering”; and Iris Xia, grade 12, for the printmaking piece “Early Spring.”
Upper school Silver Key Award winners were Cindy Liu for the photographs “After the Snow” and “Lines,” Simon Orr for the ceramic work “Cow Pig Whistle,” Ilsa Zhang, grade 12, for the drawing “Red Lobster” and the painting “Skull and Grapes,” Iris Xia for the printmaking pieces “Cityscape” and “Newspapers,” Catherine Manea, grade 12, for the drawing “Jail Time,” Neelima Gadagottu, grade 12, for the drawing “Recharging,” Lynda Tang for the drawing “Breathing Room,” Rebecca Liu, grade 12, for the drawing “Redirection of Resources,” Shannon Su, grade 12, for the sculpture “Burst,” Albert Chu, grade 11, for the short story “Sisyphus at His Piano,” sophomore Kacey Fang in the dramatic script category for her work “Of Age,” Emily Wang for her flash fiction piece “Mrs. Pardo” and Leo Yu, grade 10, also in flash fiction, for “The Adhesive.”
Middle school Silver Key winners were Carissa Chen for the painting “Framing Myself – An Exploration Into Culture” and the drawing “Captivated.”
Honorable mentions went to Carissa Chen for the drawing “Strangled Voices,” Rebecca Liu for the printmaking piece “Vases,” Monika Lee, grade 11, for the drawing “Gold Hard Cash,” Emily Wang for the drawings “Self-Portrait” and “The Kiss,” Ilsa Zhang for the printmaking piece “Lionhead Goldfish,” Amy Gendotti, grade 12, for the drawing “Soccer Cleats,” Justin Gerard, grade 12, for the drawings “Shirt Study” and “Lasso,” Sylvie Dobrota, grade 12, for the paintings “Self Portrait” and “Innocence,” Avni Barman, grade 10, for the drawings “Manhattan” and “Introspection” and the painting “What Makes Me…,” Jasmine Gill, grade 12, for the photograph “Los Altos,” Simon Orr for the photographs “Untitled (bell),” “Untitled (bell 2),” “Mariner,” and “Field,” senior Lori Berenberg for her poems “To Collaboration,” “Your Son Has Been Killed” and “Crumbling,” Vineet Kosaraju, grade 9, in the journalism category for the piece “Learning Life’s Hard Lessons,” Cindy Liu, grade 10, for the personal essay “My Great Grandmother Alice” and Leo Yu in flash fiction for “One Second.”
In late January, the San Francisco-based wind quintet Frequency 49 held several master classes for Harker students. Made up entirely of working professional musicians, the group visited a number of classes at the middle and upper school campuses, starting with the grade 7-8 orchestra, led by Dave Hart. The musicians showed the students the sounds and various attributes of each instrument and played a special selection of pieces in a variety of styles.
“Since many of the students in orchestra have had experience performing in chamber ensembles throughout the year, they were able to ask questions about the process of rehearsing and performing music in a chamber setting,” Hart said.
Later, the group stopped by Hart’s grade 6 wind ensemble’s rehearsal. For this session, Hart rented duplicate instruments played by Frequency 49 so that students could try them out following a brief lesson on how they were played. “They spent the rest of the class with each member trying out those particular instruments. It was a blast and the kids were completely engaged!” Hart exclaimed.
Their final stop at the middle school was Hart’s grade 6 strings class. Students had been spending this semester separating into groups and learning a chamber music piece of their choosing. The students had the chance to play the pieces for Frequency 49, who later performed for them. “Hearing Frequency 49 provided the students an opportunity to see and hear a professional chamber music group perform the pieces the students have been working on the last two weeks,” Hart noted.
Lastly, the group visited the upper school for a workshop with Chris Florio’s class, demonstrating what could be done on their respective instruments. “For example, the flutist demonstrated how the flute can produce bird-like sounds,” said Victoria Ding, grade 9. Ding said communication was one of the important principles that the group taught the students. “Frequency 49 instructed us to sit in a certain arrangement such that each instrument’s sound carries well to the other players and the audience,” she said. “They also reminded us to maintain eye contact with each of the four other players and adjust to what we hear in order to maintain balance in the ensemble.”
“I found it to be really beneficial because I had just begun playing in a woodwind quintet this year and I wasn’t quite sure how to play so that each member could play together well as one ensemble,” said Aaron Lee, grade 11.
The lights dim and spies climb on the runway to gather in front of a dark screen. A hooded figure flickers to life on a video screen and, with a disguised voice, tells the agents to find the secret to Harker’s success. And the countdown begins …
The homage to “Mission: Impossible” set the tone for this year’s fashion show, Mission: Possible – Dare to Try, Harker’s 10th annual fundraising spectacular. The visionary behind the show was Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts chair K-12, who, with parent chair John Keller and producer Beverly Zeiss, created a plotline that ran throughout the show: could undercover agents find the secret to why Harker students had so much fun, did so well and enjoyed school so much?
Student, parent and staff models took to the runway in clothes from several generous fashion partners, and occasionally a secret agent would pop up to try to infiltrate. Dance Fusion, Varsity Dance Troupe, Downbeat, Showstoppers and High Voltage performed dance numbers throughout the show; and in a spectacular finale, live instrumentalists graced the fashion show for the first time as a chamber ensemble and the Grade 5 Choir joined Downbeat to perform while senior models showed off formal evening wear.
By the time Chris Nikoloff was revealed as the agent in disguise, the audience had enjoyed a live auction, a lobby casino and another phenomenal Harker event.
See the TalonWP website for the student journalists’ writeup of the show.